


From Dido to Rome

by TheSeventhL



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Drabbles, Episode Tag, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-06
Updated: 2013-10-06
Packaged: 2017-12-28 13:18:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/992438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSeventhL/pseuds/TheSeventhL
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of drabbles centered around Vicki. Takes place from The Rescue to The Romans. Spoilers for all episodes mentioned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Dido to Rome

**1.**  
Dido is a cold planet. Its surface is harsh, jagged, unloving. Mr. Bennet is always in bed and useless and the cruel Koquillion keeps watch over them. Some days, Vicki wishes she had gone with her family the day they went away. 

Dido is no place to live.

Vicki toils away on Dido's terrain, keeps away from Koquillion as often as possible, watches over Mr Bennet. 

Every night, she hangs another wish on the first star she sees. _Someone, please, rescue us_. She dreams of a spaceship that will come and take her away.

One day, her dream comes true.

**2.**  
Vicki is not stupid by any means. She's a fast study, a student of medicine, computers, life science. She survives for so long on Dido after the ship crash and the death of her father, practically by herself, taking care of Mr Bennet all the while. She's a clever young girl.

So when the Doctor tells her the truth about the death of her father, when he reveals that poor Mr Bennet isn't so poor or so innocent, no one is more taken aback than Vicki. 

No one is more surprised than Vicki.

No one feels more betrayed than Vicki.

**3.**  
She stands outside the TARDIS, the Doctor's words ringing in her head. Vicki has spent so many days waiting for a rescue ship that seems to never come. She never realized that a wooden blue box would become her alternative, occupied by two people who come from the past and a man with eyes that sparkle like the stars.

Mr Bennet is gone. Her family, gone. No one left to miss Vicki as she leaves - but there are three people who will miss her very much if she stays.

Vicki steps into the TARDIS. She never sees Dido again.

**4.**  
Vicki is not Susan. She is not a girl meant to replace a void or a ghost. When the Doctor calls her Susan once, it's a mistake. The second time, it's a concern. 

At one point, she thinks the Doctor is talking to her, a string of melodic foreign words that the TARDIS won't translate. She wonders if Susan would have understood. She wonders who Susan is, if they would have been friends.

The more she learns of Susan, the more Vicki realizes how lonely the Doctor is. She's been lonely. She's not Susan but she'll do her best.

**5.**  
 _Mother_ , Vicki writes. _You'll never guess where I was today. Ancient Rome! It was beautiful. I met Emperor Nero - he was quite the pig, and not very bright either!_

_We watched Rome burn---_ and Vicki rests her pen next to the notebook Barbara gave her. 

How can she fully describe how Rome looked, lit up against the night sky, flames licking away at the buildings like a fierce red monster? The feeling of watching history unfold before her, something right out of the pages of her school books?

At that point, Vicki realizes she'll never be the same again.


End file.
